A recent survey by Barclays found that 71 percent of mid-sized businesses in the U.K. are creating jobs this year, up from 65 percent last year.

“Mid-sized businesses have continued to weather the economic storm, and still have room to flourish and grow, which explains their willingness to hire,” Ian Stuart, the managing director of Barclays Corporate Banking, said. “Comparatively, the U.K.’s largest companies might not have reduced headcount in recent years in the expectation that the economic conditions would improve. As their people are often multi-skilled they can be moved to other areas within the business, so there’s less of a need to create new jobs.”

While 79 percent of businesses do not anticipate job losses over the next year, 57 percent of businesses indicated that they do not want to hire former public sector workers.

Only 48 percent of small businesses will create jobs this year, while 65 percent of large businesses plan to create jobs, down from 72 percent last year. Fifty percent of the largest firms are planning to hire, down from 70 percent last year and 85 percent in 2011.

Sixty percent of the U.K.’s biggest firms are willing to hire former public sector workers, up from 38 percent last year. The biggest firms are also the group that indicated most often that former public sector workers are “quite well” or “very well” equipped to take on a position at their company.

“The survey shows that the U.K.’s largest companies are the most interested in taking on public sector workers, as they have skills which can be transferred, yet unfortunately they are less likely to be recruiting this year,” Stuart said. “This continues to leave ex-public sector workers in a challenging position, as the ongoing re-balancing of the economy means many have to seek opportunities in the private sector.”